Oh I can't contain my excitement. The best day of the year is only 10 hours away, and AA is packed with drafty goodness. Greg Oden has already been guaranteed to be the first selection, but that's just the beginning. And while I don't want to distract you from the KSK Birthday Celebration....there's just too much stuff to get to. Here's the rundown....

1. The Blogger Mock Draft- Twenty something bloggers...an Internet message board....What could go wrong??? Actually things went pretty good. And instead of comparing our list to the others, yours truly is grading the teams and the Bloggers picks. It's going to be a blast.

2. AA's Official Mock Draft- Here's Last Year's Mock Draft back when I didn't know how to upload pictures. Pretty much got destroyed on that one, and hopefully the same thing can happen this year! And a bonus...it will have officially 10x less foreign players than Chad Ford's!!!

3. A Special Draft Day "You Create The Caption".

4. NBA Draft Live-Blog 2007, 7pm- We'll get this thing kicked off right at 7pm, or before. And everyone....I'm expecting a destruction of the 107 comments from last year. You better be there.

5. Any and every draft day video or item I can bring you.

6. There might be even a ridiculous surprise event for you as well.

The Day is packed my friends. And just to get you completely geeked, I give you "Kevin Durant Apocalypse" and the "Greg Oden Mix Tape"!!!! Whoooo!!!!!

T-T-T-Totally Dude!

A whole bunch of rumors surfaced about Greg Oden's 40 20 year old body last evening. I'm pretty sure most of these might be just hearsay....well, all but one....

"We haven't heard anything about his knee," said agent Bill Duffy, who represents Oden in association with Mike Conley Sr. "One thing we are aware of is that his hip alignment is off. One of his legs is longer than the other, but he's obviously had that for a long time."

Who's got their AA scavenger hunts out? You ready??? One of my arms is longer than the other. Oh snap!!! He can't type! He can no longer reside in his 'rents' basement. He's done as a blogger!!!

But seriously....are you really not going to draft him because of that? This has to be Seattle just starting random rumors right??? Those coffee drinking bastards!!!

P.S.- CNNSI often gets overlooked, but great reporting by Mr. Ian Thomsen

Injury concerns about Oden (CNNSI)

When I was nineteen years old, the biggest decision I was ever forced to make was whether or not I felt like making the five-minute walk to the HLC for my nine o’clock Health class. More often than not, the answer is no, but either way, “to class or not to class” was not a life-altering choice.

Greg Oden is a nineteen year old who will soon be making a much bigger decision: will he leave Ohio State after one season and move on to the fame and wealth dangled by the NBA, or will he state in college for another year or two and try to win a national championship for the Buckeyes?

If Oden’s father is to be believed, the choice has been made and Young Greg is on his way to Boston, Memphis, or whichever team is lucky enough to land the number one pick. According to his would-be agent, however, the best collegiate big man in a generation has yet to make the final decision.

What should Oden do? Got me. I thought it would be nice to help him sort everything out, though, so check out a few of the pros and cons of early NBA entry after the jump.


Mo’ Money: Under the Rookie Salary Scale detailed in the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, Oden stands to make close to $4 million in the first two years of his initial contract. For a kid who is currently playing for nothing more than a free education (as valuable as that is), that’s a tremendous carrot to dangle. Result: Pro

It’s Getting Hot In Here: It can’t be easy being the big man on campus, especially when your mere presence on the basketball team helps bring about a trip to the national championship game. Depending on where Oden goes in the draft, however, the pressure could be even more intense. Result: Con.

The Shaun Livingston Factor: It’s becoming a common, but completely legitimate, concern: suppose a young, five-star freshman prospect suffers a serious injury that drops his draft status and negatively impacts his future earning potential? This has to be considered a very real possibility for Oden, especially on the heels of last year’s wrist surgery that sidelined him for several months and might have hampered his play when he returned. Strike while the iron is hot, young man. Result: Pro.

Chicks, Man: I’m sure the groupies at the NBA level are top-notch practitioners of their trade, but I tend to view them as more of a professional-style groupie. Jumping to the NBA makes it that much more difficult to return to the amateur ranks. But then, would you want to go back? Really, this one is too close to call. Result: Push.

The Best Years Of Your Life: Are they saying that about college these days or is it more of a high school thing? Regardless, Oden should take the advice of someone who completed his last two years of college as a commuter: you can go back to school after jumping to the NBA and finish your degree, but I don’t know if you can ever regain the feeling of what it’s like to actually be a college student. The window of opportunity for unlimited partying and wanton debauchery won’t stay open forever – enjoy it while you can. Result: Con.

The Game: There’s gotta be at least one category that deals with on-court stuff, right? The bottom line is simple: Oden’s game isn’t NBA ready, and he knows it. He’s an intimidating defensive presence, and chances are that Bill Simmons is right and he hasn’t really cut loose for fear of re-injuring his wrist, and he might end up being the best NBA big man of his generation. But he’s not there yet. This isn’t the 1950s Celtics and Greg Oden is not Bill Russell; these days, even a great defensive player should have a good offensive game (yes, I know you got paid for your defensive talents, Mr. Wallace). Another year in school – his first truly healthy year – would help Oden work on that aspect of his game and provide a more complete player in the long run. Result: Con.

By my count, that’s three cons, two pros and one “doesn’t matter, he’ll be nailing hot chicks wherever he ends up”, so I guess from my perspective, Oden should come back for another year. But hey, that’s just the result of this highly unscientific method of deliberation. Hopefully Oden and his parents have a better way to figure it out, like flipping a coin or playing rock-paper-scissors.

First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Marco, I run a blog called Just Call Me Juice, which is clearly better than this blog. I'm doing these guys a freaking service. All joking aside (I actually think this is one of the most informative and unquie sports blogs on the Web), I will be guiding you through the first big conference basketball game of the young season, #5 Ohio State at #4 Wisconsin. I've never live-blogged a college basketball game, but I think it should work out just fine. Besides, it's either I do this tonight, or continue filling out mind-numbingly boring grad school applications. I'm going with the live-blog.


So what exactly makes this game worth live-blogging?

1. You get to check out 85 year-old Freshmen Greg Oden
2. You get to check out one of the most underrated college basketball programs in the country in Wisconsin.
3. Also the most underrated players in the country in Alando Tucker
4. There is a good chance Dick Vitale will be invloved
5. A better chance Erin Andrews will be invovled (Do I need to go on after that?)



Here are tonight's projected starting line-ups:

WISCONSIN

PG Kammron Taylor 12.6 PPG
SG Mike Flowers 7.7 PPG
SF Alando Tucker 20.6 PPG
F Jason Chappell 4.1 PPG
C Brian Butch 10.6 PPG


OHIO STATE

PG Mike Conely 9.1 PPG
SG Jamar Butler 7.7 PPG
SF Ron Lewis 13.1 PPG
PF Othello Hunter 8.2 PPG
C Greg Oden 14.4 PPG

Here are my keys to the game:

1. The way the Ohio State freshman handle the hostile crowd. The Buckeyes are already 0-2 in big road games against Top 5 teams (North Carolina, Florida) and the Kohl Center might be the most hostile envirorment they play in all year.

2. The play of Brian Butch. He played his best game of the year in the Badgers best win thus far, scoring 27 in a win over then #2 Pitt. If he has a another big game, the Badgers will be tough to beat.

3. The Three Point Line. The game might come down to this. If Ohio State can hit the three (they have excellent shooters in Cook, Harris, Butler and Lewis) against the Badgers suspect perimeter D (they gave up 16 treys to Winthrop this year), the Buckeyes could pull off the upset

My Pick: In a game a contrasting styles, I think that if the Badgers can control the tempo (slow the game down) and use the crowd to their advantage, they'll pull off the win

Wisconsin 74 Ohio State 68

So join me tonight at 9. As always, leave your comments about the game, and how annoying Dukie V is. And before I go, If anyone else is interested, Just Call Me Juice is going to be doing weekely college basketball picks, I've already got 7 blogs in , so if you want in, leave a comment here or over at my blog. Winner gets the piece of the Aggro Crag I won playing GUTS when I was 11. So it's worth it.